Su Dongpo’s vulgar and elegant poetic culture

Huang Tingjian, the leader of the Jiangxi Poetry School, once said: "Take the vulgar as elegance, use the old as the new, and be victorious in every battle, just like the soldiers of Sun Wu. The thorn end can break the arrowhead, just like a fly flying from a guard's shot, which is a wonder of the poet. ? ("Re-Yun Bingqiu") In the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Ge Lifang quoted this theory in the third volume of "Yun Yu Yangqiu", which later became an important poetic theory of the Jiangxi Poetry School. However, this statement actually came from Su Shi. In his "Two Poems on Liu Zihou" written in the eighth year of Xining (1075), he said: "Poetry must be written with a purpose, and the things should be used to make the old new, and the commonplace to be elegant." Being curious about new things is the disease of poetry. ?It can be seen that "using the old as the new and the vulgar as the elegant" is what Su Shi said about poetry, but the history of poetry has always ignored this. If we compare the writing characteristics of Su Shi's and Huang Tingjian's poems, it is not difficult to see that Su Shi's poems are famous for taking the commonplace as elegance, while Huang Tingjian's poems win by taking the old as the new.

Su Shi once said to a poet monk about the method of poetry: "If you blurt out the sayings, the rules will go off track." What people say is not the beauty, the beauty lies in the truth. ("Zhupo Poetry Talk") The "common sayings" that come out of the mouth are actually the colloquial or popular language used by people in daily life. Su Shi believed that using common sayings and following artistic rules is the secret of poetry creation. This complements his explanation of "taking the commonplace as elegance".

The development of the art form of Chinese classical poetry into the Song Dynasty has shown an obvious tendency towards elegance and uprightness. Su Shi proposed that "taking the vulgar as elegance" is very conducive to the innovation of poetic art and the formation of the characteristics of Song poetry, which means The destruction of the paradigm established by Tang poetry. There were poets in the poetry circle of the late Northern Song Dynasty who discovered and highly affirmed Su Shi's artistic tendency of treating vulgarity as elegance. Zhu Bian's "Feng Yuetang Poetry Talk" contains:

(Shenzhen) Taste and comment on poetry with guests. The guest said: "There are some worldly stories and novels that can be incorporated into poetry, and some that cannot be incorporated into poetry, but Dongpo didn't choose them at all and started using them." Just like what is said in the streets or in disdainful places, once it is picked up, it is like a fairy turning rubble into gold, which has its own beauty. ?Shen Liao said: ?Lao Po has a stove between his teeth and cheeks. How can others learn from it?

Shi Daoqian (Shen Liaozi) was a friend of Su Shi. Only Su Shi was able to melt the poetry into poetry and turn the vulgar into elegance; this is not something that ordinary poets can do. Throughout Su Shi's poems, we can see that he indeed used this as an innovation in his creative practice and successfully realized the poetic purpose of treating the vulgar as elegant.

Using everyday spoken language in poetry makes the poetry popular, natural and extremely fluent, which is common in Su poetry. Su Shi's "Inscription on Shen Junqin" says: "If there is sound on the piano, why not put it in the box? If the sound is on your fingers, why not listen to your fingers?" This poem is easy to understand. "Xi'er Plays" says: "Everyone raises his son in the hope of being smart, but I have been deceived by being smart all my life." I hope that my child will be foolish and careless, and that he will be able to come to the palace without any trouble. ?This is a play, written in commonplace, and has a more self-mocking meaning. In his later years, when Su Shi was relegated to Huizhou, he wrote "The New Residence at Baihe Peak is about to be built, and I spend the night with the scholar Zhai in the west". One of them goes:

Lin Xing's husband's family has just closed down, and Master Zhai's house is still closed. After Lianjuan's missing moon and dusk, Piaomiao's new residence is among the purple green. Is there no Luo Dai Shui when I am bored? Is there a sword and a mountain of sorrow when I am cut off? Looking to the north of the Central Plains, there is no day to return, and the neighboring fire village is going back and forth.

The first two sentences of the poem are common sayings that come out of the mouth, describing the details of ordinary life, but the poetic development is unexpected, and deeply expresses the painful mood of being relegated to Lingnan. This is an example of combining common sayings with elegant poetry. In addition, if thousands of people cultivate and feed ten thousand people, they work hard for a year and have one spring break ("Hezi Yusi Silkworm Market"), "What makes me famous is wine, because he makes me sick and forgets my worries" ("June 7th at Jinling") , blocking the wind, I got Zhongshanquan's official letter and sent poems"), "I am like an old bull whip that can't move, the rain is slippery and the mud is deep with four hooves heavy" "Everyone is charming and beautiful"), when we carefully appreciate these poems written in common language, although they are simple and vulgar, they have a profound meaning in life.

In the history of poetry, it is not surprising to use popular and clear sayings in poetry, but to use common things and common things in poetry is Su Shi's bold attempt. Su Shi's poem "Supervising the Workers in the Rain on the Salt River at the Opening of Tangcun Transport" expresses Su Shi's deep sympathy for the people working in the rain when he was in office in Hangzhou. The poem goes like this: "The salt incident is urgent, who can support farming." When the dying day breaks out, everyone points to Luogoukeng. The rain from the sky helps the government, and the clothes are wet with rain. Humans are like ducks and pigs, throwing themselves into mud and splashing each other in shock.

I dismounted on the deserted embankment and looked around at Danhu Lake. The line is not sufficient, and there is competition with cattle and sheep. ?Su Shi said in his own words: ?It is not easy for the people to work hard, but the rain also helps the officials and the people to work hard, which leads to the fatigue of the people. The labor of the people in the mud is no different than that of a duck or a pig. It is also said that a certain person is also in the mud, fighting for the road with cattle and sheep. What if he returns to the fields? (Hu Zai's "Tiaoxi Yuyincong Hua") The people described in the poem are working in the mud like ducks and pigs. Mud, officers and cattle and sheep fighting for passage on the narrow road are all indecent and vulgar things. In addition, "Song of Rice Horse" sings about rice-planting farm tools: "I have a tung horse that can be lifted by hand. The head is high and the ribs are high. The belly and ribs are low." My back is covered with tiles and my horns are removed, and my two feet are used as four hooves. ?"Visiting my son in the wild to eat Shao Yu on New Year's Eve": ?The wind in the pine trees makes the spring cold, and it accompanies me at night with the sound of my hungry stomach. The cow dung burns the taro in the fire, and the mountain people eat it even more. ?The images in the above poems such as "two feet and four hooves", "cow dung burning taro", "lazy crumpled" and so on are all extremely indecent and unattractive evil things, but Su Shi used these images.

In Su poetry, we can easily see the use of dialects or jokes. Without the author's own annotations or the explanations of contemporaries, it would be difficult for us to understand their meanings. Zhou Zizhi wrote: When Dongpo was in Huangzhou, he went to see a scholar and ate oil and fruit very crispy. Because he asked the owner what his name was. The owner has no name. Dongpo asked again why it was very crisp, and all the guests said: "It can be called a name." ?Also, Commander Pan said that Dongpo couldn't drink. Whenever he prepared wine, Po laughed and said, "This must be the wrong water." ?The other day, I suddenly thought about oil fruits, and wrote a short poem to ask for it: ?In front of the wild flowers, nothing happened, except a gourd tied around my waist. I've poured the water into the wrong pan, and I'm even more looking for Jun's house to be very crisp. ("Zhupo Poetry Talk") "Wrong water" and "Why is it so crisp" were Su Shi's temporary joke, which actually made it into poetry. Wang Zhifang recorded: Gu Zidun was known as Gu Tu because of his fatness and greatness. Therefore, Dongpo's "Poetry to See Off Zidun and Envoy He Shuo" says: "My friend Gu Zidun has a brave and majestic body." The stool is around the abdomen, which not only stores menstrual history. ?Another saying:? Sharpen the knife to the pigs and sheep, drink with the neighbors. ?As for Yun??s lifelong criticism of imperial edicts, they all use the Tu family language. ("Tiaoxi Yuyincong Hua") In the poem, "sharpening knives for pigs and sheep" and "batching hands" were both industry slang in the slaughtering industry at that time, and Su Shi used them to joke with his friends.

Chen Shidao of the Su family recorded in "Houshan Poems": In the early days of Xining, someone often submitted letters to cater to the prime minister's wishes and became the censor. Su Changgong said in a play: "If you have any intention to seek wealth and honor, but if you don't have a bad nose, you will be evil." ?What’s the meaning? No bad taste? It’s all common saying. "Yitou" means the mind, and "Babi" means the origin: they are both dialects and common sayings in the Song Dynasty. In addition, as in the poem "It's hard for you to take action" ("Li Qi is a scholar who is good at painting mountains, and he sends it in two scrolls, and there are still poems, and he answers it in rhyme"), the word "take action" in the sentence means to sell or get rid of. ?In the kitchen, steamed millet is piled in a rice urn, and a large ladle is used to take the sour stool and make saliva? ("Tea with Jiang Kui"), the author's own note: ?Shandong likes to eat millet rice and drink sour sauce. ?Also, Shandong people bury meat under rice and eat it, which is called a rice urn. ? Even if you come with cars carrying wine, you won’t think of the village if you don’t drink wine from outside? ("Reply to Wang Gong"), ?村? is a common saying of the Song Dynasty, and it means vulgarity. "You are not afraid of flying mosquitoes like a standing leopard" ("Ci Yun Sun Mi Cheng Jian Xi"), the author's own note: "There are many mosquitoes in Huzhou, and the leopard's feet are especially poisonous." ?Leopard foot is a kind of mosquito. ?The cuckoo by the stream advised me to take off my hakama? (Part 2 of "Five Birds"), the author's own note: ?The natives call cuckoo a man who takes off his hakama. ?The spring is dark in the sky, and the needle water hears good words? (Fourth of "Eight Poems of Dongpo"), the author's own note: ?People in Shu call drizzle as rain. When the rice was first growing, the farmer said that the rice needles were coming out. ?Su poetry uses folk dialects and dramas into poems. This is a very strange phenomenon in the history of poetry.

Examples of Su Shi's use of common sayings in daily life, use of common things, and use of dialects and dramas all illustrate Su Shi's artistic tendency to regard the vulgar as elegant in his poetry creation. Although these poems are vulgar or even vulgar, once we understand the specific environment in which they were written and the poetic meaning they express, we can see that behind the vulgar appearance there is a kind of elegance of the Song Dynasty. This situation is not an isolated phenomenon in Su Shi's poetry. We can also see some vulgar images in many of Su Shi's elegant and profound poems. For example, Su Shi wrote the first paragraph of the Five Ancients novel "The Supervisory Examination Presented to the Examiners" when he was in charge of Hangzhou: "I am a native of the mountains, and I have stolen an inch of land in the bitter cold." Although he rarely writes words, it is not natural talent. Once you have achieved it, you will lose it and forget it, and you will be lazy now. If the linen clothes are on again, the ink will be drinkable. Every time I hear the imperial edict, I sweat like a stream of blood.

The poems are very elegant and self-deprecating. For example, the two sentences "linen clothes" and "ink" look like common sayings but actually have their origins, while "white sweat" is a common saying.

Treating the vulgar as elegant is the basic artistic tendency of Su Shi's poetry. In the late Southern Song Dynasty, Yan Yu accused Su Shi, Huang Tingjian and the Jiangxi School poets of using words as poetry, talent and learning as poetry, and argumentation as poetry in his "Canglang Poetry Talk? Poetry Analysis". He believed that these were poetic shortcomings and violated the characteristics of poetic style. Compared with the poets of the Tang Dynasty, Su Shi and Huang Tingjian did have the phenomenon of using words, talents, and arguments as poetry, and it was more serious, which resulted in the erudition and profound characteristics of their works. Since Yan Yu's criticism, this has become an important theoretical basis for later poets to attack and deny Song poetry, and has launched a long-term debate on the quality of Tang and Song poetry. However, poet commentators since Yan Yu have ignored the artistic tendency of Su Shi, Huang Tingjian and Jiangxi School poets to regard vulgarity as elegance, as well as the many popular vernacular poems that appeared under the influence of this trend. Therefore, the artistic tendency of taking vulgarity as elegance initiated by Su Shi deserves our attention, and should cause us to re-understand and evaluate the artistic characteristics of Song poetry. ;